A MAN slashed his sleeping father’s back with a kitchen knife and then stabbed his mother in the stomach as she struggled with him, a jury heard.

Robert Bode, 54, was charged with wounding his elderly parents Arthur and Elizabeth Bode with intent to cause them grievous bodily harm, following the incident at their home in Hillside Drive, Solihull, in July.

But Warwick Crown Court heard that he was mentally unfit to stand trial over the stabbings.

And Judge Marten Coates instructed the jury to decide whether Bode ‘did the acts alleged’ before he could be dealt with under the Mental Health Act. They found that he did.

Prosecutor Daniel White said Bode had suffered mental difficulties all his life, but was also suffering from depression before he attacked his parents, both in their 70s.

“At four in the morning Arthur Bode was woken from his sleep by a thump in his stomach. He woke and saw his son leaving the room and a kitchen knife was on the floor,” said Mr White.

“He saw his son run into his wife Elizabeth Bode’s room and followed as fast as he could and saw a scuffle between his son and his wife.”

The elderly couple held Bode, who was saying he wanted to kill himself, until he calmed down and then phoned their daughter before calling the police.

After his arrest Bode said he had no intent to commit the offences, adding: “I love my mom and dad.”

Arthur Bode told the jury: “I was asleep in bed and I felt a thump to my ribs and noticed Robert running out. I went out of the room into the wife’s room.

“Robert was on the floor and the wife was down with him trying to restrain him. He was fitting and shouting that he had got to kill himself.”

The jury decided Bode ‘did the acts alleged,’ Judge Coates said he would make a hospital order and adjourned the case for psychiatric reports.